Wow.

M. Night Shyamalan concretes his status as one of films brightest new hopes with this simply awesome sci-fi/horror/thriller that stars Mel Gibson as a former priest (who lost faith after his wife died in a horrible car accident) who one day has crop circles pop-up in his corn fields. To top that all off his pet dogs and small daughter begin to act strangely (the dogs go feral and the girl keeps insisting that the water "tastes funny").

Eventually these crop circles start popping up all over the place and soon it becomes quite apparent that they are the work of aliens who have decided to invade Earth. This leaves Mel, his almost sports star brother Joaquin Phoenix (who does great in a mostly comic relief role), his daughter and son (Rory Culkin, another of the clan making his way to film and faring quite well) to hole-up in their farmhouse, fight off alien invaders and watch in horror (and listen in horror) on TV and the radio as the invasion goes full scale.

Take a little bit of War Of The Worlds (the invasion), mix in some Night Of The Living Dead (the farmhouse boarded up) and add some quiet tension and you have this intelligent "what if?" film from Shyamalan which stands up as his best effort yet.

His script is paced well, has enough comedy mixed with thrills and purposely plays up all the sensationalism of the premise (the lights and home video footage of an alien look straight out of tabloids) for this nail biter. We're given characters we care about wrapped in a simple, yet complex, script and plenty of suspenseful moments that rely more on sound and mood than either gore of violence.

As with his prior films, Shyamalan throws in a religious angle which adds some interest (but wasn't totally necessary) and pleases by not actually putting a "twist" into this one.

This is the best movie of 2002 - all those cynics can go back to watching lame Hollywood "big explosion" movies.

Directed By: M. Night Shyamalan.
Written By: M. Night Shyamalan.

Starring: Mel Gibson, Joaquin Phoenix, Rory Culkin, Abigail Breslin.